April 2009

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2009.

While 2008 was generally considered one of the worst years in history for the restaurant business, it wasn’t bad for everyone.  Fast food and full service casual dining restaurants have continued to perform well.  Particularly McDonalds and Burger King, as well as Panera Bread and Darden Restaurants (holding company for Olive Garden and Red Lobster).   

Fast food restaurants have lured in customers by offering major deals, but even some fast food restaurants are feeling the pinch.  “High food costs and selling of food at a dollar doesn’t help your margins,” said Larry Miller, a restaurant industry analyst with RBC Capital Markets.

The economy is holding up as such that people are continuing to eat, but perhaps they just aren’t eating as well as they used to.  To read the whole article, click here.

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In these tough economic times, improving your cash flow can make a drastic difference in the health of your company.  Play around with our Capital Flow Model to see how Trade Credit Express can improve your business.

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Discover Small Business Watch reports that in March 2009, economic confidence among small business owners experienced the largest increase in nine months.  In addition, the number of small business owners who say the economy is getting worse dropped to 60 percent (down from 69 percent the previous month).  To read the whole report, click here.

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Companies declaring bankruptcy is steadily increasing.  Consider the numbers:  In 2007, 76 public companies went bankrupt.  In 2008, 136 public companies went bankrupt.  In 2 months of 2009 alone, there were 44 companies that went bankrupt.  For a full list of notable companies that have gone bankrupt in 2009, click here.  It’s a scary time.

However, for a list of companies that have NOT gone bankrupt in 2009, review the FTRANS clients list of buyers.  Thanks to FTRANS thorough underwriting process, we’ve managed to save our clients from losing any money this year.

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Jim Lester, FTRANS VP of Marketing, was interviewed on High Velocity Radio recently.  Lester talks about FTRANS in the current economic environment, as well as some important business lessons.  To listen, click here.

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Some of Georgia’s most innovative companies in the financial services and payments technology spaces gathered at TAG’s recent Entrepreneurs Speaker Series. Dan Drechsel, CEO of FTRANS; Lynne Laube, COO & Co-founder of Cardlytics; and Gardiner Garrard, III, Investment Partner of Total Technology Ventures participated in the panel discussion.

The state of Georgia has a long history of enabling the growth of financial services and payments processing companies, partly because of legislation passed in 1980s, which encouraged businesses to setup in the state. Georgia is the home to headquarters to many of the most successful financial technology companies.  Including:

Total Systems Services (TSYS), Columbus
First Data, Atlanta
Global Payments, Atlanta
Evalon, Atlanta
RBS Worldpay, Atlanta
Checkfree, Atlanta
Fidelity Information Services, Atlanta
Harbor Payments, Atlanta
Compucredit, Atlanta
Digital Insight, Norcross
Skylight Financial, Atlanta
Alogent, Atlanta
Firethorn, Atlanta
FirstView, Atlanta
Vesdia, Atlanta
Directo, Atlanta
Prime Revenue, Atlanta
AdvanceMe, Marietta
Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Atlanta
Chain Reaction, Atlanta
Vsoft, Duluth
Paymetric, Atlanta
PayTrans, Atlanta
Trandotcom, Kennesaw
FTRANS Corp., Atlanta

Additionally, part of the conversation centered around the financial crisis.  Banks are under pressure to find opportunities – they need new sources of revenue and something to help retain and acquire new customers.  FTRANS and Cardlytics are two Georgia based financial services companies working hard to provide banks and businesses with innovative solutions. 

For information about future TAG events, visit their website.

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PricewaterhouseCoopers released the Top 25 VC Deals in Georgia, and FTRANS made the list.  For more information and to read about FTRANS metrics, click here.

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